Community
More Work To Do | A Message from CEO Dave Ressler
Our community is so far enjoying a quintessential Aspen summer with plenty of rain and record numbers of visitors finding their way here (other than through Glenwood Canyon) to enjoy all that we have to offer. It really feels good to have happy, smiling families walking our streets and visiting our businesses again, and we have largely ourselves to thank for our relatively high vaccination rates that made this all possible. But as we learned last week, the elephant hasn’t left the room, and our COVID-19 incidence rates are climbing again, fueled by the Delta variant and still too many people who aren’t vaccinated. Last Tuesday, recognizing the same national trends, the CDC announced that even those of us who are vaccinated should resume wearing masks indoors, if we live in a community that is high-risk. And we are, unfortunately, high-risk in Pitkin County based on the CDC’s criteria. Just within the past couple of weeks, the Hospital has started to see more, but not yet overwhelming, numbers of positive cases requiring admission.
We clearly still have more work to do—to get the rest of us vaccinated, to still exercise caution and avoid large indoor groups without masks, stay home if we don’t feel well, and get tested when we have COVID symptoms. Of course, our success is tied to our nation’s success, and even global success, given our destination attraction, and we are all watching national vaccination rates closely for signs of improvement and continued hope for the future.
In our monthly enewsletter, though, we focus on our present and future services that AVH continues to enhance and improve for our community. Principal among these is our sizable investment of resources in the implementation of the gold-standard for electronic health records—called Epic. As you will learn, we have committed to a process that will impact, and benefit, every physician, employee and patient at AVH. Quality healthcare begins with having the right information at the time it is needed. That is the essence and purpose of electronic health records which integrate all of our healthcare settings within and outside of AVH, including hospitals across the country. And intuitive-to-use portals keep our patients connected to us, and their own health, given the ability to schedule appointments, view test results, and communicate with our healthcare team.
We also welcome Dr. Scott Samelson to our team, with his extensive experience in hospital and urgent care settings in a resort community, not unlike our own. His love of the outdoors makes him and his family a perfect fit for our community. We also share a reminder to tune into our next Dietitian Demo focused on nutrition for the athlete. And finally, we explain our plans for our much-anticipated and needed health fair, and how we have created a safe and efficient means of providing low-cost laboratory tests.
We hope you enjoy this month’s edition of our enewsletter and that you learn more about the many ways that AVH keeps you and your health at the forefront of our work as your community hospital and network of care.
Stay healthy and stay safe,